Nick Gordon found responsible for wrongful death of Bobbi Kristina Brown after ignoring court order

Nick Gordon and Bobbi Kristina Brown. File photo / AP

Nick Gordon has been found responsible for the death of his ex Bobbi Kristina Brown after failing to show up for court on Friday.

A hearing had been scheduled for 9:30am at Atlanta's Fulton County Superior Court to hear motions pertaining to the wrongful death suit filed last August by the estate of Bobbi Kristina against Gordon and for a judgment to be entered in the case.

Gordon, who had elected to represent himself in the trial, was not in attendance however, leading the judge to declare that all allegations made by Bobbi Kristina's estate in the case would be admitted through omission.

A jury will now hear the case and decide on the damages owed by Gordon to the estate, who had been seeking $50million in their lawsuit.

Bobbi Kristina, the daughter of Bobby Brown and the late Whitney Houston, passed away at the age of 22 on July 26, 2015.

She spent the final six months of her life in a medically induced coma after being found unresponsive in a bathtub at her Georgia home.

The news that Gordon had failed to appear for court was first reported by 11 Alive . No criminal charges have been filed against Gordon at this time.
'In court today, we finally finished a long journey for justice for Bobbi Kristina Brown,' R. David Ware, a lawyer for Brown's conservator, said outside of court.

'He is legally responsible for her death, and the only thing left for us to prove is the value of her life,' R. David Ware, the lawyer for Bobbi Kristina's estate, said outside the courthouse Friday morning.

'And we intend to do that.'

Meanwhile, Judge T. Jackson Bedford, who was presiding over the case, said of Gordon on Friday: 'I do not like people thumbing their nose at the court.'

Gordon previously voiced his disregard for the estate's wrongful death lawsuit while appearing on Dr. Phil this past April.

In that interview - which took place one year after Dr. Phil staged an intervention for the troubled young man on his show - Gordon admitted to the television host that he had 'ignored this lawsuit and its consequences.'

That comment enraged Bedelia Hargrove, the executor of Bobbi Kristina's estate, who filed a motion asking that the judge impose monetary sanctions against Gordon, who she said in court documents had 'totally disregarded and ignored his obligation.'

Hargrove also took Gordon to task for not responding to the suit or any of her filings but 'freely discussing his role in the incidents which led to the horrific injuries to Bobbi Kristina Brown on public television.'

Bobby Brown also joined his daughter's estate in the wrongful death suit just two weeks after Gordon's interview.

His sister Leolah was in court on Friday and took some time to speak with reporters on her way out of the building, saying: 'It's been a long time. They should have been gotten him. He should have been arrested. I'm angry. I'm angry because I want to see some justice. Something has to happen and it has to happen soon.'

Bobbi Kristina's body was found in her bathtub almost three years to the date that her mother Whitney was pronounced dead after suffering a similar fate while staying at the Beverly Hilton prior to the 2012 Grammy Awards.

It was Gordon who found and tried to resuscitate Houston in that incident as well, after he discovered her unresponsive in her bathtub just hours before she was due to attend Clive Davis' annual Grammy party.

Eight months after her mother's tragic passing, Bobbi Kristina announced she was engaged to Gordon, who was raised at times during his childhood by Houston and who many considered to be a brother-like figure to Bobbi Kristina.

The pair later claimed they had been married in early 2014, but Bobby Brown shot down those statements, saying the two had yet to wed.

Houston was pronounced dead on the scene after being discovered in the bathtub of her suite at the hotel, with accidental drowning, heart disease and cocaine use later cited as the causes of death.

The estate claims in their lawsuit that Bobbi Kristina's death happened after Gordon had been 'out all-night on a cocaine and drinking binge.'

Bobbi Kristina and Gordon argued after he returned home at around 6am on January 31 according to the lawsuit, with the two having it out for approximately 30 minutes while two other individuals - Danyela Bradley and Max Lomas - were at the home.

The estate claims in court papers that Gordon then 'gave Bobbi Kristina a toxic cocktail rendering her unconscious and then put her face down in a tub of cold water causing her to suffer brain damage.'

Bobbi Kristina's autopsy report showed that her face being immersed in water, along with drug intoxication, led to her death.

She was found to have morphine, cocaine, alcohol and prescription drugs in her body at the time her body was found in the tub.

The medical examiner could not determine whether her death was an accident, suicide or murder however, and ruled it 'undetermined.'

In an interview with DailyMail.com after the release of Bobbi Kristina's autopsy, a happy and smiling Gordon said; 'I'm glad that s*** is all over.'

He then added; 'I just want to wish my girl a Happy Birthday. I can't say any more but it's good.'

Hargrove first filed a lawsuit against Gordon in June of 2015, while Bobbi Kristina was still in a coma.

In that initial filing, which would later become the wrongful death suit, Hargrove claimed Gordon was physically abusive on multiple occasions and stole money from Bobbi Kristina's bank accounts while she was in a coma.

It was also alleged that his actions on the day Bobbi Kristina was found unresponsive in the tub were the result of him learning that she was leaving him.
Hargrove's initial lawsuit on behalf of the estate stated; 'Just prior to January 31, 2015, Brown had confided to someone that [Gordon] was not the man she thought he was and set up a time on January 31, 2015 to meet with this person to further discuss this revelation.'

It went on to say; 'Brown, however, never made it to the meeting. Instead, on the morning of January 31, 2015, Brown became embroiled in a loud argument with [Gordon] at her townhome.

'The loud argument ended and Brown was later found unresponsive and unconscious, face down in a bathtub, with her mouth swollen and another tooth knocked out.'

Gordon was also accused of physically assaulting Bobbi Kristina multiple times in the suit, including 'punching her in the face, knocking out a front tooth, and dragging her upstairs by the hair.'

The lawsuit said that Gordon 'engaged in and caused unwanted, harmful and offensive bodily contact to Brown.'

It gets more specific after that, claiming that the harm caused by Gordon included 'loss of teeth, pain and suffering, and trauma that has required medical treatment as a direct consequence of [Gordon's] physical abuse.'

Hargrove also claimed that Gordon stole in excess of $11,000 from Brown's bank account(s)' in the weeks after she was found unresponsive and that he falsely represented himself as Bobbi's husband, gaining access to her accounts and trust, something she began to question in the months prior to the day she was found in the tub.

Bobbi Kristina's estate, which had been bequeathed to her through her mother Whitney's will when she died in 2012, was worth approximately $20million at the time of her death.